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Creativity & Arts Awards rescheduled for Feb. 25

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The Emory College Center for Creativity & Arts presents the sixth annual Creativity & Arts Awards on Thursday, Feb. 25, at 6:30 p.m. in the Schwartz Center for Performing Arts. The event was originally scheduled for Jan. 22, but was canceled due to a University closure for inclement weather.

This year, Kenny Blank will be presented with the 2016 Arts Advocate Award in special recognition of his tireless support of and vision for the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival as its executive director.

“The arts provide us a visceral experience through which we can creatively connect with the world around us,” Blank says. “An artist’s expression allows us to tap into other people, emotions and knowledge that may be otherwise inaccessible or unfamiliar to us. All of this serves to illuminate our lives, provide potent doses of imagination that enrich and entertain, and remind us of what makes us human.”

Lois Reitzes, 2015 Arts Advocate Award recipient and host of WABE’s “City Lights” and “Second Cup Concert” art program, will be on hand to help present this year’s award.

Awards are also given to those on campus and in the local communities who have made significant artistic and administrative contributions to the arts in metro Atlanta.

Veronica Kessenich will receive the CCA Community Impact Award for her work as executive director of the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center. The center’s recent shift to a free admission policy allows greater community access to its quarterly exhibitions.

“Since eliminating admission, Atlanta Contemporary’s audiences have increased both in number and diversity and we look forward to continuing in our work to create a community that offers ever-expanding support for the creation and appreciation of contemporary art,” she says.

Other 2016 award recipients are:

Carolyn Cook, “Blackberry Winter,” Theater

Saskia Benjamin, Art Papers

Janet Akers, Theater Emory

Randy Fullerton, Emory faculty

Ryan Sutherland, Emory student and STIPE Scholar

Barbara Hund, Friends of Emory Music

Biviana France, Feel Beautiful Today (Winship Cancer Center)

Whitney Wharton, Emory Alzheimer’s Disease Center

The awards spotlight core values of the Center for Creativity & Arts, which include discovery, societal impact, courageous inquiry, innovation, collaboration, human spirit and the exploration of new frontiers.

The awards ceremony is open to the public, but reservations are required. Email creativity@emory.edu to reserve a seat for this event. The event takes place in the Chace Upper Lobby of the Schwartz Center.